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The Santa Barbara District Attorney’s Office has determined that Santa Maria police officers were justified in using deadly force as they attempted to arrest a suspected drug dealer last December. Samyr Ceballos was shot and killed by the officers — two of whom sustained non-life threatening injuries from friendly fire — when he pointed a loaded pistol at them during the incident.

The report makes it clear that the DA only looked at whether the use of deadly force was appropriate, not whether the officers followed proper policies and procedures. “Those issues and other related issues remain under the sole jurisdiction of the Santa Maria Police Department and the City of Santa Maria,” the report reads. Citing applicable law, the report states: “Under California law, anyone, including a police officer, who is threatened with an attack that justifies the use of self-defense, need not retreat. The person attacked may stand his ground and defend himself, if necessary, by deadly force, even if he might have more easily gained safety by flight.”

Samyr Ceballos

On December 8, 2011, 10 officers — from the SWAT, narcotics, and gang units — met to serve a drug-related search warrant at Ceballos’s residence. During the briefing, they were told Ceballos often carried a gun and had a number of prior arrests for violent crimes. He had also reportedly threatened a future shoot-out with police to avoid another arrest.

When Caballos pulled up to his house, officers swarmed his car and demanded to see his hands. He reportedly refused, instead pulling out a loaded 9mm handgun and pointing it at the officers. The officers tried to wrestle him from the car, deploying a Taser in the process, but he maintained control of the pistol. During a quick and confusing sequence of events, four officers discharged their firearms, firing a total of 12 rounds. Caballos was hit between 5-7 times by three different officers. He died at the scene.

During the shootout, two officers were struck by crossfire. One was shot twice, once in each hand. The other was struck in the leg. Both recovered from their wounds. “The injuries were apparently inflicted with fellow officers felt the potential crossfire problems were outweighed by the immediacy of the suspect attempting to fire the 9mm handgun at their fellow officers,” the report reads.

Comments

Apparently, the Santa Maria Police Department needs two types of training: 1) Target range training in order to learn how to shoot straight, and 2) Tactical training in order to learn how to work as a team in so that they don't get in each other's way. Unfortunately for Ceballos he is the victim of all his bad luck and the subsequent bad decisions that he made. If you shoot it out with cops, you die. Who does not understand that?

article: "During the briefing they were told Ceballos often carried a gun and had a number of prior arrests for violent crimes. He had also reportedly threatened a future shoot-out with police to avoid another arrest."

Sorry dude, this slimeball was a "victim" to his own stupidity (sorry Eckermann, w/ all due respect, luck has NOTHING to do w/ it).He chose to scoff the laws (as they're written), he chose to commit violent crimes, he chose to carry a weapon, he chose to aim a loaded weapon @ law enforcement officers, shall I continue?W/ regards to the recent shooting of a SMPD officer being placed under arrest by fellow officers, from your comment, you can say the following:

"another life lost to sex w/ minors law..."

Doesn't roll off the toungue easily, does it?

We see clowns like this get blown away by the cops on a daily basis in Anytown, USA. They also get blown away by their own ilk.Thing is when you got choices to make, choose wisely from the start to avoid being what Eckermannn refers to as being a "victim of all his bad luck and the subsequent bad decisions that he made."

Eckermann, no truer words said on this matter: "If you shoot it out with cops, you die. Who does not understand that?"

Henry buddy, of course you are correct that Mr.Ceballos' choices and decisions contributed the most to his untimely demise. However, I can't help but think that he was not born into and did not grow up in the most fortunate of circumstances. If not, that was bad luck not bad decisions by him. On the other hand, we all get dealt some deuces in our lives and how we respond to them is telling about our character. I was not defending my Ceballos, I was just acknowledging some folks don't get to start out as fortunate as others. It can be a cruel world. Choosing the thug life only makes it worse.

MikeD: "the USA will again be the nation that kills each other the most every year..."

Got to ask the question here: Are we also factoring African nations where killings of gays & albinos, systematically mind you, are rampant?Thing is over there it is done w/ machetes & w/ that said, our situation maybe "sad" but getting chased then hacked to death is just plain scary.By the way, it happens on a daily basis & THAT in itself is even scarier.Wait! Even scarier is the fact that those who fall victim to the machetes commited no crime other than having a certain a genetic code or an alternative sexual pattern.Bottom line: machetes don't kill people, people w/ ANY weapon kill people :) henry

Eckermann, 1st of all, I know you weren't defending Ceballos in any way & sorry if it sounded like I was saying that. Clearly NOT the case.I understand what you're saying & respectfully have to agree & diagree @ the same time about being born into crime.In my old neighborhood of Hialeah, FL there were 2 kids (Buddy & Sonny, what other names would you expect?) who were the neighborhood white trash thugs.If it wasn't bolted down, these 2 stole it. If it was bolted down, they'd find a way to un-bolt it & steal it.Juvie had a history w/ these 2 thugs since age 9 or 10. The reason why these guys turned to thuggery & thievery?Families that were comprised of thugs & thieves, some doing hard time in the system.If the family members weren't doing time they were busy husslin' 1 way or the other.Kind of like 1 of those "Irish Traveller" families that rip people off & stuff like that.I can see if a kid was born in a horrible neighborhood, but Hilaeah wasn't horrible. A little scrappy, but not horrible.Bottom line is Buddy & Sonny were born into the thug life & it was shoveled down their throats through the formative years.Did they have a choice? Absolutely not. But when you look around you & see that all your other neighbors don't have the cops coming to their houses every other day & taking somebody off in cuffs, well, that ought to send a clear message of sorts.By the way, these guys were constantly given choices & chances, all of the time. But in the end it was the thuglife that always prevailed. Got 1 of them killed from what I hear, the other doing hard time. Sucks to be them :) henry

Hank, I think Africa and what happened in Santa Maria are way different cases. Yes people kill people no matter what weapon they choose but what I am talking about is, America being way to gun happy. Just take a look at Canada's gun deaths every year and then we might be on the same page. It is always funny how so many Americans go to huge extremes to try to prove their point when it has nothing to do with what is being discussed...

Henry, albinos are being systematically killed in Africa? Really? Exactly how many albinos have ever been born on that continent?

Oh, you mean Caucasians? Why didn't you say so?

Now that we have that cleared up, what the hell does African genocide have to do with Santa Maria drug arrests. And, yes native2sb is correct - this is yet another fatality that can be directly laid at the feet of the horribly stupid drug war.

Estimated 150,000 albinos in Tanzania alone. Huh. That took all of 2 seconds. I think it's safe to say Hank wasn't being sardonic.

And to be fair, Canada doesn't compare to the US for gun crimes because Canada is full of Canadians. You can't hold two cultures equal on the same scale. Compare the US to Venezuela, which was far stricter gun laws, but had ten times the homicide rate in 2010. And seriously, have you met Canadians? They're so nice.